Launch and recovery tips for newbie

[Iankristy]

Swap rollers for harder blue non marking type. Previous trailer had the rubber ones and they are useless. Roller mounts should also tilt freely. It also looks like your rear rollers look quite far forward to support transom weight. Ideally would have just a couple of cm hanging out. Should be an easy 1 man launch with that👍

[Pikey Dave]

Originally Posted by Bjohnson

I thought a couple pics may assist!

trailer has 16 rollers, all a bit old. the rear 8 are on a swinging cradle.

I'm not sure if i should have more rollers!

Boat is a 5.85 Ribcraft with 150 Mercury so theres a lot of weight on the back.






does anyone think i need more rollers, particularly at the rear??

Personally I think it looks light in the roller department. I'd also look at lowering the rear rollers on the swing beam, you will need to trial & error this bit to ensure that the bow doesn't catch on the swing beam when launching & recovering. AND, lose the straps over the tubes 😡


Sh1t happens

[Last Tango]

Originally Posted by Pikey Dave

Personally I think it looks light in the roller department. I'd also look at lowering the rear rollers on the swing beam, you will need to trial & error this bit to ensure that the bow doesn't catch on the swing beam when launching & recovering. AND, lose the straps over the tubes ��


Sh1t happens

+1 Yep the back of the boat is too high. Best thing for getting it off the trailer is water.....get it down into it.

[Xk59D]

Needs more rollers and also imo the rear swing beam needs to be further back so last roller is literally right under the transom to avoid hooking the hull. Tbh it might be the trailer is a little too small for the boat, need to see more pics of entire rig on it to see what you have left at the front.

It looks like you cannot adjust the rear swing beam much more which means you need the boat further on the trailer. You will need to weigh the towball and see what you need but it looks like boat needs to go on further and perhaps axle moved to compensate for towball weight.

Just be careful adjusting anything, it may hit when you come to recover so carpet everything until sure it won't hit, i found out the hard way!

[jeffstevens763@g]

this was my 5,85 roller line level 16 rollers at the stern i had a dolly that i pushed the boat on to for waxing surprising how far the boat will come back before it starts to tip [hitched to the truck] single handed launch no problem as Dave says loose the straps over tubes put two lorry straps from the eyes on the transom back to the trailer.your old rollers might have a flat on them through age which might be stopping it rolling back jack the boat up and have a look.

cheers

[paintman]

IME if you have the 'normal' black rubber rollers - esp where the keel sits - you can pretty much guarantee they will have developed flats due to keel pressure. New rubber ones will do the same in short order.

[TorontoDiver]

Originally Posted by Pikey Dave

AND, lose the straps over the tubes [emoji35]


Sh1t happens

main piece of trailering advice I picked up here. Bow locked Down and straps on transom to hold it tight.

[Bucksribster]

Photo of my RC5.85. If you zoom in you will see it has two sets of 16 'wobble rollers'. The last set end right on the transom. It is an SBS trailer. The previous Indispension one with my last rib had fewer rollers but it was a lighter rib. The RC585 is a great rib but no lightweight.

[Bjohnson]

Thanks for all the pointers, several good items in there to consider.

It will be a few weeks before I get back to the boat, but looks like I'll tackle new rollers at the front, 2 new banks of 8 rollers mounted on the swing cradle (to replace the existing 2 banks of 4 rollers) and then I'll try lowering the rear rollers by one notch, but I'll do one step at a time to check on progress and improvements.

I'm hoping that the new longer roller sets at the back will give the extra length to extend below the transom and help improve launch and recovery.

I have about an inch of adjustment left to move the existing swinging bracket further aft on the trailer, but the extra length and new rollers should help.

Last weekend we had a faultless launch and recovery, so a big part of this is practice and familiarity with the set up.

Launch is improved by rocking the bow of the rib from side to side to ease it off the trailer, rather than trying to physically push it off the trailer.

Recovery benefitted greatly from a few YouTube videos - trailer only into water as far as the rearmost rollers being just submerged, line up rib with trailer a good distance out, approach on tick over and stand in the centre of the boat to balance. Once initially on the trailer, straighten up boat then apply some power to push it onto trailer.

This got us almost all the way on, only had to connect winch for the last couple of inches.

Two more questions!
- what's the issue with the straps round the tubes? I only use them to tow/secure from the slipway to the yard and as soon as we park up i slacken them off again.
- any tips for jacking the boat up off the trailer by a couple inches to replace rollers, without having to remove the boat?!